Trade Secret Protocols Not Followed: Wikileaks

This week’s disclosures by Wikileaks of hundreds of thousands of classified, secret documents is a stark reminder of the admonitions that we trade secrets lawyers have been saying for years: It is not enough to have protocols to protect your secrets – the protocols must be followed.

According to recent accounts of the incident (see here), an Army private (Bradley Manning) was able to download the quarter of a million secret documents by copying them onto a Lady Gaga music CD he had burned at home and a memory stick. Although protocols that supposedly would have identified his activities were in place, the protocols we reportedly not followed.